Disheveled man at bus stop rambles on about "internment camps". No one cares.
Posted on 07/05/2014 10:42:18 AM PDT by a fool in paradise
You remember those, right?
If you ever wonder where delusional left-wingers get their ideas that what is happening in the world, it's useful to know your history. They didn't just start believing crazy things when George W. Bush won the Florida recount, or when dastardly Republicans started criticizing Barack Obama. They've been this way for a long time.
And as is so often the case, the insanity is influenced and often led by figures in pop culture. REM front man Michael Stipe provided a perfect example in a recent statement about why, back in the 1980s, he decided not to get tested for HIV:
"In the early Eighties, as a 22-year-old queer man living during the Reagan-Bush administration, I was afraid to get tested for HIV for fear of quarantine, the threat of internment camps and having my basic civil rights stripped away," he said. "I waited five years to get my first anonymous test. I am happy that attitudes have matured and changed, and I feel lucky that I live in a country where acceptance, tolerance and policy toward HIV-AIDS and LGBTQ issues have advanced as far as they have."
You all remember the Reagan-Bush internment camps, right? Gay people with AIDS would be herded up by government agents in hazmat suits, put in the back of black vans and driven to camps with names like Stalag REM. There, they would be held by armed guards and fed porridge and drop biscuits three times a day until they simply wasted away, at which point their bones would be ground up and used to make more porridge for those who were still holding out against the inevitable.
And where were these internment camps? Everywhere. There was one in Reagan's birthplace of Tampico, Illinois. There was one at the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, Maine (where I hear a young George W. used to sit with Jeb up on a hill and watch the internees play volleyball under close supervision).
I was going to tell you about the talent show, but . . . OK, even I can only get so absurd here. But apparently there is no limit to how absurd a rock star like Michael Stipe can be with either his memory or his grasp of simple facts. There were never any internment camps or government-mandated quarantines, or were any discussed, proposed or contemplated. AIDS and HIV were new, frightening and mysterious things in the '80s, and everyone was trying to understand what to do about them and how to help those who had contracted them.
Obviously, because HIV is highly communicable, there was a lot of discussion about the best ways to stop its person-to-person spread. But no one ever proposed the sort of absurd nonsense Stipe describes. Which sort of makes you wonder: Is he engaging in hyperbole or did he really live in such a delusional bubble that he thought then - and maybe still thinks today - that the government under Reagan was rounding up AIDS patients and shipping them off to camps? Maybe people who move in the rock and roll world or who get their news from sources like Rolling Stone really think stuff like this went on. I guess it's that easy in hindsight to believe the left-wing legends about Reagan rather than remember the things he actually did - and didn't do.
Just a reminder: People who believe nonsense like this elected Barack Obama, and they are sadly still empowered to vote.
Ahh yes. The tolerance of the LGBTWHATEVER camp that shuts down businesses and destroys the lives of those who disagree with them.
BINGO!
I had to buy some BDUs even though I was getting out and they were relatively expensive.
I bought some ACUs for my last two years in. One benefit was you could take them straight out of the dryer, shake them out, put them on the hanger and never need to iron them.
The permanent press fatigues (as in Stripes above) were the same way, but they looked even better ironed and starched. In Korea my housemen did it (never called them “houseboys” they were usually old enough to be my father) but stateside I usually didn’t bother.
“I miss that uniform. I had to buy some BDUs even though I was getting out and they were relatively expensive.”
I always thought the BDUs were better: more roomy, you sweated less, the material was more comfortable and pockets galore.
I found them to be hot, but then my last duty station was HHOC, 105th Military Intelligence Battalion (CEWI), 5th (Mechanized) Infantry Division, Fort Polk, Louisiana.
I think this was the first time in the history of mankind where known carriers of a deadly, communicable disease, were not attempted to be kept isolated from the public.
And quite the opposite, the carriers were treated as virtual heroes and martyrs to their 'cause' of perversion. Billions of dollars raised to fight this disease (which was easily known how to prevent) and siphoned away from working on other diseases such as cancers and Alzheimer's.
I found them to be hot, but then my last duty station was HHOC, 105th Military Intelligence Battalion (CEWI), 5th (Mechanized) Infantry Division, Fort Polk, Louisiana.
Oh wait....
Yeah, ours were winter weight. I never wore them there except for one formation where they required it. I felt sorry for those guys as I waived to them from the rear-view mirror of my brand-new Ford EXP. Remember those? LOL
Yes, it trumped all $ for other diseases and they effectively stopped AIDS for those in modern countries. But political correctness and the refusal to quarantine killed a lot of people.
The move is on now to eliminate the laws that require persons with AIDS to notify their partner(s).
AIDS Pride and all that.
http://www.ippf.org/resource/Healthy-Happy-and-Hot-young-peoples-guide-rights
“A guide for young people living with HIV to help them understand their sexual rights”
“Sexual and reproductive rights are recognized around the world as human rights - Every person living with HIV is entitled to these rights and they are necessary for the development and well-being of all people and the societies in which they live.”
“Young people living with HIV may feel that sex is just not an option, but don’t worry — many young people living with HIV live healthy, fun, happy and sexually fulfi lling lives. You can too, if you want to! Things get easier (and sex can get even better) as you become more comfortable with your status.”
“This guide is here to support your sexual pleasure and health, and to help you develop strong intimate relationships. It explores how your human rights and sexual well-being are related and suggests strategies to help you
make decisions about dating, relationships, sex and parenthood. It explores the rights of young people living with HIV to:
• express and enjoy their sexuality (page 3)
• decide if, when, and how to disclose their
HIV status (page 5)
• experience sexual pleasure (page 7)
• take care of their sexual health (page 9)
• practise safer sex (page 11)
• choose if, when, how many, and with whom
to have children (page 13)
• access support and services that respect
their dignity, autonomy, privacy and
well-being (page 15)
R.E.M.’s ‘Losing My Religion’, but in a major key, called ‘Regaining My Religion’. Musically interesting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6KmiIq2-m8
*shrug* Projection.
Confirms my wise decision to remove all REM music from my iPod collection. It sits up in the cloud where it belongs, along with Barbara Streisand, Roger Waters and Dixie Chicks.
Disheveled man at bus stop rambles on about "internment camps". No one cares.
The guy is a Happy Meal short of a Happy Meal
Democrats rounded up Japanese-Americans and put them in concentration camps during WWII. Germans got a pass.
During the 1930’s, Democrats used impoverished black men as lab rats, to see the effects of deliberately untreated syphilis.
When it come to gross inhumanity and wanton destruction of civil liberties, some Republicans might talk the talk. But Democrats get’er done.
They smoked pot all the time.
It causes this sort of thinking.
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